A pricing guide for design freelancers

Ah, the great dilemma almost every freelancer faces: how much should you charge for your freelancing work? Should you go for a fixed price or calculate an hourly rate? What if the client wants to negotiate?

These types of questions can cause major headaches, and learning the best practices isn’t always easy. In this article we’ll help you tackle these questions, so that you can confidently negotiate your next freelance project.

Calculate your living costs
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Before thinking about your income, it’s important to track your monthly expenses so you know what you need to earn at a minimum. There are a ton of online calculators to help with your expenses, or a simple notepad can achieve the same results.

Start by listing out all of your monthly expenses, including:

rent

internet and other utilities

cell phone bills

car insurance and gas

groceries

any software subscriptions (Adobe Suite, etc)

coworking spaces

your overpriced coffee addiction

When you have a solid list, add your expenses together to get a good idea of your minimum goal per month. Of course, you can always break down your monthly goal into a weekly goal by dividing it by 4. Or figure out your yearly minimum by multiplying it by 12.

Remember to regularly revise your expenses as they may fluctuate over time.

Okay, so now you have a minimum goal set up, let’s talk about your options when working on projects.

Advantages

If you work and complete projects fast, your quotes seem much more reasonable than if you were to translate them into an hourly rate

Drawbacks

Difficult customers might use this to their advantage to get you to do more work

Expect an increase in the duration of your projects

Expect a demand for multiple revisions and/or drafts

Time frames are very unreliable

Requires a strong grip on the customer relationship

Example of calculations on a per project basis

Minimum quote per project: $500

Living expenses per year: $1,000 x 12 = $12,000

Minimum projects per year: 24

Minimum projects per month: 2

I’m just using random numbers for this example to keep it simple. Once you apply accurate, real world calculations, you’ll end up with a nice figure to help you track your income vs. expenses.

How to handle additional work

Work that wasn’t included in the original brief is something that’s requested from time to time, and it’s important to know how to manage it. Make sure you always quote exactly what the client should expect to see in their final deliverables.

For example, if you’re working on a web project then include the exact number of pages, the exact features that will be included, etc. Things like pop-ups, forms, intermediate pages may not be included in the client’s original brief, and it’s up to you to foresee these additional features, and address them before you start working.

It’s important to fully understand the project before you set a quote. It’s okay to ask for additional information to ensure you know what the client is expecting. For example, I may ask my client to provide a rough wireframe of how they’re picturing their desired website. This additional information will help you avoid any miscommunication with your client down the road.

Option 2: Charge per hour
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Charging hourly is a great way to handle ongoing projects.

The advantages

Generally, clients use your time more wisely

You have a more relaxed approach on your projects

Cuts down on the number of revisions

Time frames are usually more reliable

Any additional tasks not included in the initial brief aren’t a big deal

The drawbacks

Requires time tracking and a reliable way to let your client know how much you’re actually working

Limits your ability to ‘juggle’ multiple projects

Requires strict living expense calculations

Seems less trustful to smaller clients who may not believe your number of hours quoted.

Again, this is a rough example with random numbers, but can help you when you apply accurate, real world calculations.

How to handle additional work

Additional work doesn’t really harm you when you’re working on an hourly rate — you might actually welcome them. They might have an impact in your scheduling, yet additional work is great news if your calculations are on point. A word of advice: always be sure you write every additional request down.

Handling negotiations
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You should always negotiate your quote at the beginning of a project — never at the end. From my personal experience, negotiating has its place in a lot of situations but not in freelancing.

It’s important to portray a trustworthy image by being transparent and quoting fair prices. You should be able to deconstruct your quote based on your assessment of the project, your skill level, the deadline, etc. And if a client still isn’t happy, then they’re not the right person for you.

It’s really up to you on whether you’d like to charge by project or by an hourly rate. What’s really important is to track your living expenses accurately and adjust your calculations accordingly. My personal recommendation is to keep a fair and transparent price at all times and avoid any negotiations.

The author

Barin Cristian Doru aka 'thislooksgreat' is an experienced web designer and proud member of the 99designs community: http://99designs.com/people/thislooksgreat
Besides creating awesome website designs, he is also an entrepreneur, an Android App Developer and a content creator. His work ranges from freebie PSD files to small tips & tricks in Photoshop, all the way to a premium 16 hour long course on how to succeed on 99designs.

Any comments?

Whether you go fixed or hourly (for me, it depends on the project, but most are hourly), the most important thing in my experience is to clearly define the work that will be done ahead of time, in writing. Call this Project Scope if you like. You can also think of it as merely managing expectations. Most of the time, from what I’ve seen from my peers, being underpaid is a result of insufficient project scoping, not a pricing issue per-se.Web Design Services Pricing